Luigi Pulci (1432-1484)
}} Luigi Pulci (15 August 1432 – 1484) was an Italian poet best known for his Morgante, an epic story of a giant who is converted to Christianity and follows the knight Orlando. He was born in Florence. His patrons were the Medicis, especially Lorenzo Medici, who sent Pulci on diplomatic missions. Even so, sometime around 1470 Pulci needed more money and went into the service of Roberto Sanseverino, a northern condottiere. Biography Luigi Pulci was born in 1432 in Florence son of Jacopo di Francesco Pulci and Brigida de' Bardi. Both his parents were from aristocratic families, but did not have financial means. After a restless youth, Luigi Pulci, was introduced to Medici family in 1461 , when he entered early into the good graces of the young Lorenzo de' Medici, with whom he shared the playful spirit that marked his first poetic works> He wrote the novel Beca Dicomano, a parody Lorenzo's novel Nencia da Barberino, itself a parody of courtly love. Between 1473 and 1474 he married Lucrezia Albizzi. At the same time, the climate of Lorenzo de' Medici's court, at first strongly influenced by his bizarre humor, had changed significantly and was increasingly influenced by the philosophers of the Accademia neoplatonica (Neoplatonic Academy). Luigi Pulci came into conflict with the members of the Academy and had a bitter dispute with Marsilio Ficino on the soul's immortality. He became less close to Lorenzo the Magnificent. Both these disputes and the financial difficulties faced around 1470 by his brothers Luca and Bernardo forced Pulci to quit Florence. He first carried out diplomatic missions in Camerino, Foligno and Naples and, thereafter, entered in the service of the condottiere Roberto Sanseverino, whom he followed in a various trips to Milan, Pisa and Venice). In March 1481 he was appointed captain of Val di Lugana, a fief of Sanseverino. He fell sick during a trip and died in Padua in 1484. Because his work was cobsidered to promote atheism and ideological ambiguity was buried in the ground desecrated as a heretic. Works The Morgan is the masterpiece of Pulci and one of the most striking poems in Italian literature, set the tone playful and amazing adventures of certain characters. It is an epic-chivalric in octaves, divided into cantari, which retrieves the matter of the Charlemagne cycle. The title comes from the name of his most popular character, a giant Orlando converts to the Christian faith and whose adventures are very much part of the plot. The poem was initially printed in 1478 having 23 songs and reprinted in its final version, in 1483, with 28 songs. The style of the last five songs of the 1483 edition is significantly different from the first part of the poem and present the death of Roland at Roncesvalles. References * Franca Ageno (a cura di), Pulci, Morgante, Milano, Mondadori, 1955. * Paolo Orvieto, Pulci medievale, Roma, Salerno, 1977. * G. Getto, Studio sul Morgante, Como, Marzorati, 1944. * Pio Rajna, Le fonti dell'Orlando furioso, Firenze, Sansoni, 1900. * Ruggero Ruggieri, L'Umanesimo cavalleresco italiano da Dante al Pulci, Roma, Ateneo, 1962.Neil Harris, Sopravvivenze e scomparse delle testimonianze del Morgante di Luigi Pulci, Firenze, Olschki, 2006. * Stefano Carrai, "Luigi Pulci nella storia del poema cavalleresco" in Paladini di carta, il modello cavalleresco fiorentino, a cura di M. Villoresi, Roma, Bulzoni, 2006. * Vittorio Bagnasco, L'epopea cavalleresca del Quattrocento, Palermo, 1946. * Francesco Foffano, I precursori del Boiardo, Rivista d'Italia, 1905. * L. Caretti et C. Segre (a cura di), Ludovico Ariosto, lingua, stile e tradizione, Atti del Congresso organizzato dai comuni di Reggio Emilia e Ferrara, 12-16 octobre 1974, p. 137-175. Category:Born in Florence Category:Married in Florence Category:Died in Padua Category:Italian poets